Woody Harrelson recalls why he nearly lost it with Matthew McConaughey during 'True Detective'
Woody Harrelson was nearly pushed to the brink while navigating longtime friend Matthew McConaughey’s acting process on the set of True Detective. “He’s method,” Harrelson, 64, said on the Tuesday, January 6, episode of his and Ted Danson’s “Where Everybody Knows Your Name” podcast.
“He’s Russ Cohle. When we were shooting , he was Russ Cohle. There so many times I wanted to punch this motherf***er in the face. I’m so pissed at him ‘cause he’s in his character.” Harrelson and McConaughey, 56, have costarred in many projects throughout their respective careers, including 2014’s True Detective. In the first season of the HBO anthology, the two actors played Louisiana detectives investigating a serial killer. “We’re sitting there. We’re about to start shooting, and we were rehearsing. I’m just kind of being stoic Russ Cohle,’” McConaughey recalled. “Woody goes, like, ‘Hey man, I need to talk to you about something.’ He goes, ‘The way you and I work, McConaughey, I hit you the ball you hit back, I hit it back to you. We volley we play. … Man, that’s us. It’s dramatic, but it’s also comedy.’” While Harrelson animatedly tried to speak with McConaughey, he didn’t get any response back — to his dismay. “I remember saying to you, before we started filming, like, ‘Dude, you know people are going to expect to laugh with us, we got to throw some jokes in here,’” Harrelson replied. “He’s just, like, ‘Mhm.’ I’m waiting for him to say, ‘Yeah, you’re totally right.’ No, he just, ‘Mhm, yeah.’” McConaughey, however, thought there “might be humor in the situation” itself instead of delivering slapstick jokes. “I’m, like, ‘No, but we need some jokes, dude,’” Harrelson said. “We gotta get Nic to write us some jokes.’” No matter their conflicting acting methods, McConaughey still says True Detective is the “favorite” TV project he’s ever done. “Favorite thing to watch,” McConaughey said. “I’m just saying the enjoyment I got from watching. I didn’t watch . On Sunday night was the first time I saw it with Camila bottle of wine.” He continued, “I didn’t remember where the episode breaks were, so I was like everyone else, like, ‘Oh, what happens next?’ … I watched it once a week like everyone else and loved it.”“I’m now working on, with you, an Apple show called Brothers. I think it’s fair to call it comedy, family … based off our friendship,” McConaughey teased. “When Woody and I do get going, he’s talking about hitting those balls back and forth. It’s, like, ‘Where do I start and where do I end, and where does he start and where does he end?’ That’s muddy waters, man, you’re not sure and you’re on a similar frequency. We’re doing our thing and it can go on and on and on it.” The series’ title is named after the actors’ respective children believing they are actually brothers. “His kids call me Uncle Matthew, my kids call him Uncle Woody,” McConaughey said. “It’s always been in jest.”
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